


slowly, then all at once

by zanykingmentality



Category: To All the Boys I've Loved Before Series - Jenny Han, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
Genre: Arcades, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Laser Tag, Post-Canon, i've never been more proud or disgusted with anything i've ever written, lara jean is secretly a sniper, this is so cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 21:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15827496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanykingmentality/pseuds/zanykingmentality
Summary: Lara Jean's first date with Peter Kavinsky is atZap Zone, of all places.





	slowly, then all at once

**Author's Note:**

> no i will not stop writing for this fandom. don't even try. title credit goes to john green. 
> 
> unbetaed but spellchecked. leave a kudos or a comment if you enjoyed~!

Lara Jean isn’t sure how Peter convinced her this was a good idea for a first _real_ date.

 

Zap Zone isn’t exactly the cheesy, first date location she’s read about in all those raunchy romance novels, but really, how bad can it be, if she’s going with Peter Kavinsky?

 

( _Ugh._ She might just gag on the cheesiness of her own thoughts.)

 

“Here we are!” Peter announces. “My birthday party venue for all of elementary school.”

 

“I was only invited once,” Lara Jean recalls.

 

“I got nervous around pretty girls,” Peter says back, and Lara Jean forgives him even though it’s such a bold-faced lie.

 

“Okay, Kavinsky. Lead the way.”

 

They get a shit ton of tokens, to which Peter says, “It’s not enough.” He then upgrades it to a _fuck_ ton.

 

“You’re wasting all your money,” Lara Jean protests.

 

“Spending money on Zap Zone and Lara Jean is never a waste,” Peter says sagely. “Come on, play DDR with me.”

 

(Lara Jean is unsurprisingly bad at DDR, but Peter isn’t really that much better.)

 

They play _at least_ five rounds, and Lara Jean’s already sweating and out of breath. “Too much exercise,” she wheezes, though she _just_ managed to eke out a victory against Peter that last round. She’s improving! Peter, in all his boyish beauty, has barely broken a sweat. Damn lacrosse player.

 

“Aww, you look so cute,” Peter says, fishing out his phone to snap a picture.

 

“Hey!” Lara Jean grabs for it, but curse Peter and his superior height ― he holds it high above Lara Jean’s head, and she’s left jumping to get it. “You’re making me do too much exercise,” she complains.

 

“It’s good for you,” he says, leaning toward her face, keeping the phone up where she could never even hope to reach it. “Anyway, I know what my new lockscreen will be.”

 

“Stooooppp,” Lara Jean whines, clinging to his arm. Peter just laughs and drags her to another game.

 

“How about this boxing game?” he suggests cheekily. Lara Jean elbows him in the side.

 

“ _No_ ,” she says, and that’s that. Instead they play like, a thousand rounds of ski ball and the score is pretty tied. Peter won’t stop grinning at her, and his infectious energy even gets to her. She keeps laughing. “What?” she asks when she catches Peter watching her for the tenth time.

 

“Nothing,” he says back, leaning down to press a chaste kiss to her lips. Lara Jean’s face immediately reaches temperatures hotter than… probably the sun? She feels like she’s about to spontaneously combust, so all she can do is look at Peter and try to restrain the wide smile that tries to split her face.

 

“You’re so weird,” she says.

 

“I know,” Peter says. He throws an arm over her shoulders.

 

“Everyone with a red ticket, please line up for laser tag!” A crackly voice sounds through the intercoms.

 

Peter excitedly grabs Lara Jean’s hand. “That’s us!”

 

“It is?” she says bemusedly, letting Peter drag her to wherever they were supposed to go. Peter reaches into his pocket and pulls out two red plastic… rectangles? They must be the tickets. He passes them to an employee that lets them into a room lit by fluorescent lights. The room is littered with other people, all watching a video displayed overhead about safety precautions and rules.

 

“Is this laser tag?” Lara Jean whispers to Peter.

 

“Not yet,” he whispers back.

 

A door opens and there are a bunch of vests glowing green or red or blue. Lara Jean recognizes them from the video and slips one over her head.

 

“You have it on backwards,” Peter informs her, already suited up. Why is he so fast at that. Lara Jean tries to take out her hands and turn it around, but Peter just lifts it up and does it for her. Then, much to her embarrassment, he kneels and does the straps and buckles for her.

 

“Thanks,” she manages when Peter stands again. God, the things he does to her. All he does in response is grin.

 

Finally, an employee sets them loose into an obstacle course of sorts. “Stay close,” Peter murmurs. He’s annoyingly attractive, Lara Jean notices, not for the first time. She’s really not sure if she wants to kick him or kiss him, but she does both on a regular basis anyway, so maybe right now isn’t the time.

 

(It’s all consensual. She asked Peter once if her habit of kicking him under the table ever hurt that much, if he wanted her to stop, but he was adamant in his answer of _no._ )

 

“If we die, I’m blaming you, Kavinsky.” Lara Jean raises her gun, looking for the flash of green or blue. She and Peter had chosen red; unfortunately, it was the color that stood out the most. Just their luck. Peter just breathes out a laugh like he so often does around her.

 

The two of them stand behind a wall with holes big enough to fit their guns through and shoot.

 

“Here,” Peter says, “we watch who’s coming, and we snipe ‘em.”

 

“Is that legal?” Lara Jean says back jokingly.

 

“No,” Peter says very seriously, smile threatening the corner of his lips. Lara Jean presses a kiss to his temple and watches through the hole. Suddenly, a discordant sound plays from Peter’s vest. Instinctively, Lara Jean twists around and pulls him to the other side of the wall.

 

“Were they behind us?” She’s oddly _into_ this, now.

 

“Think so,” Peter says, his vest rebooting. Lara Jean peers through a hole in the wall and catches a flash of blinking blue. Quickly, quietly, she raises her gun and ―

 

The blue goes yellow.

 

Peter looks at her in wonder. “You hit him.”

 

Lara Jean shrugs, but she can’t stop the grin pulling at her lips. “Guess I’m a natural.”

 

In the end, their team gets second place, but that doesn’t do anything to quell Lara Jean’s excitement. This has, quite possibly, been one of the best dates she’s ever had. Which really isn’t saying much, considering she’s never had a boyfriend before, but whatever ― semantics and all that.

 

“More games?” Peter asks hopefully.

 

Lara Jean nods. “More games.”

 

They spend so many tokens on this one clown game. The rules are simple: throw the balls and knock down as many clowns as possible. At some point, Peter’s throws get so aggressive that some of the balls knock against the side of the machine and bounce back at him.

 

“Are you okay?” Lara Jean asks after a particularly hard one hit him squarely in the forehead.

 

“These goddamn _clowns,_ ” Peter growls. Lara Jean hides her laugh behind her hand.

 

Eventually, they agree the game is rigged, because they’ve gotten down to the last clown and no matter _how_ many times they hit it, it won’t _fall._ They have a multitude of tickets, though; maybe enough to get a good prize with? They’ll figure it out later, when that comes.

 

Finally, after they’ve exhausted most of the games, Peter leads her to a tiny, two-person movie theater thing. It turns and rocks based on what’s going on in the simulation. “It’s like a rollercoaster simulator,” he says. “Just without the actual danger of like, being on a rollercoaster.” Lara Jean can get behind that, so she climbs in with him and slides in the tokens.

 

“Mars rover?” she frowns good-naturedly at the choices. “Toy coaster?” Peter just grins at her and taps the spooky, haunted house themed one. Lara Jean pouts at him, but he just ruffles her hair and leans back in his seat.

 

The ride is nothing like a real rollercoaster. All it really does is give Lara Jean a headache, and at one point there’s a jumpscare that makes her lurch back in her seat. When it’s finally over, she stumbles out of the box and glares at Peter. “Thanks for that,” she deadpans.

 

“C’mon,” Peter says, grabbing her hand. They check in all of their tickets in exchange for a receipt and bring it to the prizes counter.

 

“I think you should get the Minions plushie,” Lara Jean says, face completely straight.

 

Peter just looks at her out of the corner of his eye. “You’re funny.” Lara Jean’s face breaks into a grin at that.

 

“Ooh, matching silly bands? I didn’t know silly bands were still out there!” Lara Jean stares through the fingerprint-riddled glass of the counter.

 

“Yeah, we can get those.” Peter hums to himself. “Oh, and that cheap plastic ring.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Saving it for when I propose,” he deadpans. Lara Jean’s head snaps to him as the worker behind the counter passes the prizes over to them.

 

“Peter Kavinsky, we are in _high school._ This is our _first_ real date.”

 

The laugh that Peter lets out makes Lara Jean’s eyes widen and her heart skips a beat. “I know.” He winks at her. “Just a joke.” But he takes her hand and slips the ring onto her finger anyway.

 

“You’re so lame,” she says. Then, after a beat, “I love it.” Peter kisses her lips and takes her hand, and they go out to the car together.

**Author's Note:**

> secret agents au: peter goes out in the field and lara jean is his sniper partner 
> 
> thank you for reading!


End file.
